iPadOS: iPads get their own operating system

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During the WWDC 2019 keynote, Apple confirmed that iPads will be ditching iOS for a distinct operating system. They're calling it...iPadOS.

While the name isn't too surprising, it's clear Apple wants to distinguish the tablet experience from mobile phone, which should be exciting to both developers and iPad owners. It "builds on the same foundation as iOS," per Apple's announcement post, but expect it to grow more into its own OS in time.

iPadOS brings small but critical improvements in the tablet UI, both in making better use of screen real estate and by introducing new gesture controls. In short: iPad users won't just run an upsized iOS anymore.

The first new change is pretty representative: a new layout that shows more apps on each page. Gone is the era of excessive dead space between all your app icons. 

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That makes room for Today View, which can be added to the Home screen for quick access to widgets. Swipe to the side and you'll pull up an app widget, which you can switch out with another app from the dock. 

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Multitasking also gets an upgrade: you can Split View to see two app windows at a time from the same app. Slide Over lets users quickly view all their open apps with a natural finder swipe to the side.

Files now has a Column View to take better advantage of the iPad's wide screen. iCloud Drive allows folder sharing, and will show content from a USB drive or SD card if they're plugged in.

Safari is also improved...because it's no longer purely iOS. That's right, you're no longer just viewing mobile sites, as iPadOS views websites in a modified desktop view that's a bit cleaner and supports touch. This should make web apps like Google Docs and Wordpress work a bit better.

Apple's browser also has a few new additions like a download manager, 30 keyboard shortcuts and improved tab management.

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Gestures, gestures, gestures

One of the bigger features across the OS are new gestures. The ones we've seen are pretty simple: three-finger pinch to cut, three-finger splay to paste, three-finger swipe to 'undo.' Easy.

In some apps, you'll also be able to two-finger pinch the keyboard to shrink it to iOS mobile-size and move it around. Plunk it next to the side of the screen and boom, you can type on it with one thumb. 

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Markup and more

Markup also gets an update, which now lets you mark up entire webpages, documents and emails. A simple swipe up from the corner with an Apple Pencil launches markup and brings up the newly-redesigned tool palette, which can be dragged around to reposition. (Speaking of the Pencil, Apple has shrunk latency from 20ms to 9ms.)

Plenty of new features that are coming to iOS 13 are also headed to iPadOS, like Dark Mode, custom Fonts, the new Photos organized by machine learning, and the SwiftKey-like slide-and-type QuickPath keyboard feature. 

Performance has been streamlined, too, with faster Face ID unlocking and smaller app storage footprints that reduce downloads by up to 50% and updates by up to 60%. Apps launch twice as fast, too

Leaked...just before WWDC

Funny enough, news of iPadOS was kept a secret...until minutes before WWDC 2019. Updates to developer language on Apple's website revealed a new OS was on deck.

Developing...

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